With international health groups paying close attention to a suspected plague outbreak in Russia's Irkutsk region, eyes have turned to the little-known research institute in Siberia at the center of the investigation. Russian media reported last week a 28-year-old laboratory technician at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far East, named as Darya Shipilova, died two days after falling ill. Russian reports quickly linked her death to a potential workplace incident at the infectious diseases facility in Irkutsk's main city, while Alexey Tsydenov, the governor of the neighboring Buryatia region, said a woman had died "possibly from plague." Irkutsk regional governor Igor Kobzev said on Friday Russian authorities are "implementing a full range of anti-epidemic measures" related to a "suspected case of a regional resident with a particularly dangerous infection." Russian officials have described the woman's death as linked to pneumonia, without mentioning whether the pneumonic plague, which affects the lungs and is highly contagious, was responsible.
As the days have worn on, concerns have grown about Russia's lack of transparency over the suspected plague case, heightened by unconfirmed claims a second person had developed pneumonia. The Kremlin says it has provided information "in sufficient detail." Maxim Modin, the mayor of the town of Shelekhov on the outskirts of Irkutsk where Russian sources said Shipilova had died, quickly said the local hospital had been placed under quarantine and a raft of tests were canceled. Several other medical facilities were reportedly shuttered.
Russia has not officially confirmed the woman's cause of death, and told the World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday it hadn't detected any plague cases in Irkutsk. The United Nations' health agency has said there is a "moderate to low" risk for Irkutsk residents, which drops to "very low" for people outside the country. Plague can be transmitted by fleas infected with the Yersinia pestis bacterium, or passed to humans when they come into contact with infected material, animals or particles.
The bubonic plague is the most common type of plague, but the bacterium also causes pneumonic and septicaemic plague. The Yersinia pestis is naturally present in some parts of the world, meaning cases are rare but can regularly flare up, most often in parts of Africa. Plague was responsible for millions of deaths over thousands of years, including the Black Death, which ravaged Europe and killed an estimated one third of the population of the continent in the 14th Century.
Health experts say plague is now treatable with antibiotics, as long as it is detected early. A website that appears to be the institute's official portal describes the site as dating back to 1934, when it was set up by the Soviet Union specifically to study ways to control the plague. Its founder and first chief was an epidemiologist and professor, Skorodumov Aleksey Mikhaylovich, according to the information published on this page.
He is described as playing a key role in containing plague outbreaks in Russia's Transbaikal region in Siberia, as well as Mongolia and China, during the mid-20th century. The website lists 10 subsequent institute directors, and says its research broadened out beyond the plague to also examine other diseases, including anthrax and cholera. The Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute has 95 staff, including 13 doctors, according to the page, with the most recent appointment of director listed as a Professor Balakhonov.
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